Hi, My name is Myrna.  I'm a crossing guard.

Sometimes, when I'm directing traffic...

I imagine I'm conducting a symphony orchestra.

I love music.  I play the trumpet.

Learning to read music isn't really that hard.

You've got the whole note.  That's four beats long.

Kind of like the double bus.

Then there's the half note.  That's two beats long.

Shorter than a double bus -- more like a regular school bus.

The quarter note is one beat.

Shorter than a school bus -- more like a car.

The eighth note is half a beat long.  So two equal one beat.   

I think of them like bicycles.

 

The sixteenth note is half as long as the eighth note.  So there are four of them to each beat.  

I think of them like rollerbladers.

Altogether they look like this.

Here's the chart that the kids from my school colored.

They did a nice job, didn't they? 

Here's an example of how you write the ABC song.

ABC SONG

In case you forgot how it goes, you can click on the link to hear the song:

http://www.virushead.net/babyboo/midi/alphabetsong_bb.mid 

Here's the second half of the song without the cars and bikes and rollerbladers.  If you print it out you can draw your own bikes and cars! 

People often say that music helps you with your math, and it's true.  The chart shows the ratios between the notes.  Ratio is a word from math that means the relationship of one number to another.  As you go down the chart, each note is half as long as the one before.  Since there are two 2s in 4 but only one 2 in 2, the ratio of 4 to 2 is 2 to 1, or 2:1.  From 4 beats to 2 beats to 1 beat to 1/2 of a beat to 1/4 of a beat...the ratio is always 2:1 as you go along. 

 Another way of looking at it would be like this.  But I like my cars and buses better, because, after all, I'm a crossing guard, not a fisherman.

Do you hear the music all around?  Listen...

Here's me conducting the sounds in my neighborhood.

How many vehicles can you find?

Here's my neighborhood on Google Earth.  It's called Inwood and it's the northern part of Manhattan, New York, New York, USA.

Here's how you can use the buses and cars on a magnetic whiteboard to help kids understand the notes.

Here's some kids playing around with the vehicles.

Let's see what they came up with.

Not really what I had in mind, but that's OK.

Some of you already use Garageband, which is great for learning how to play. 

This is what "ABC" looks like in Garageband's "arrange window."

Now here's what the window looks like with the vehicles.

Looks pretty cool, doesn't it? 

Keep checking my blog, kids, because I'll be posting other songs with my cars bikes and buses on them to help you learn!

Myrna.

P.S.  Pay attention to your crossing guards!